1. Field of the Invention
The invention refers to a vehicle door latch containing a locking mechanism comprising mainly a catch and a pawl and with at least one sensor for detecting the catch.
2. Description of Related Art
The catch detection mainly serves to safely detect the first or primary position of the catch, in order to carry out, for instance, locking measures and/or to initiate an electrical opening after locking. For this purpose, switches or micro switches of prior art described in DE 297 14 953 U1 are in most cases suggested, which directly detect a profile on the catch. This method has, in general, been successfully used. We also refer to EP 1 069 266 A1.
As part of DE Patent Application 102 40 003, which only has to be considered according to §3 (2) PatG, a vehicle door latch is suggested that contains a blocking lever controlled via the catch. The blocking lever is arranged on the same axis as the catch and follows its motions of rotation. For this purpose, the blocking lever and the catch are connected to each other. The blocking lever is a two-armed lever, comprising a blocking arm and a detection arm, with the latter containing a sensor cooperating with a detection device, in order to be able to detect the position of the catch.
In the first described solutions, problems can occur when the catch is soiled, iced over, etc., allowing the micro switch to be potentially damaged. For this reason, non-contact sensors, such as Hall sensors, were used in the past, as described in DE Patent Application 102 40 003. Such sensors are, however, relatively expensive to produce and install. It also suffices in most cases to correctly detect a single position of the catch, the primary position. This can be reliably done with little effort by a mechanical switch.
Apart from these problems, the sensor must be located in the catch's immediate vicinity to detect it. Consequently, individual sensors can only be combined with difficulty in a vehicle door latch. The installation position for the sensor has, in any case, been determined. The invention aims to resolve these problems.